Business is booming

Date

5 octobre 2015

Clearwater International has completed deals worth over €1 billion during what are typically considered to be the quieter summer months; activity which has seen the company’s average deal value soar to €84 million.

Following the first anniversary in June of the merger to create Clearwater International, the business has seen exceptional levels of M&A in all of its territories and sectors – and no more so than in the UK where the team have completed 11 deals in the last 10 weeks.

Transactions included the MBOs of Partner in Pet Food, worth €315m, and Ideal Shopping – with private equity investment from Pamplona and Blackstone respectively. Overall, 9 of the 11 deals have had private equity involvement including houses such as Livingbridge, MML Capital, Inflexion, Palatine, Blackstone, Sovereign and LDC. However, financing has not come from this source alone – in the case of York Mailing, innovative financial backing was provided by Pricoa Capital Group, the transaction highlighting the strong interest of alternative funders in quality UK assets.

The increased activity levels have been matched by the addition of three senior team members into the UK team: James Barraclough, Dominic Bolton and James Sinclair. The three are responsible for heading up Clearwater’s cross-border sector teams in financial services, media and food & beverage respectively. Clearwater’s commitment to graduate recruitment also continues with the arrival of four graduate junior analysts.

The transactions of the summer follow hotly on the €128m sale of HL Plastics to Quanex, completed in June.

Phil Burns, managing partner of Clearwater International, said: “So much for a quiet summer! We have seen an exceptional period for the business, reflecting considerable growth for Clearwater International. As we move into the final quarter of 2015 with a strong pipeline, we look forward to some more exceptional outcomes for our clients.”